Jeannie's Dream
by Carinthe
Summary: Jeannie used to dream of parallel universes... Mild spoilers for 'McKay and Mrs. Miller'


Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis, its characters and all related entities are the property of MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko Productions and The SciFi Channel. Yours truly only owns an overimaginative mind. Story was created for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended and no money is being made.

_AN: Just a little something I needed to get out of my system after getting the news that my baby niece had died at birth. What if can be powerful words... _

_**Mild spoilers for 'McKay and Mrs. Miller'!**_

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**Jeannie's Dream**

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The last leaf fell with disheartening finality. 

Fluttering down slowly, swept up again and again by sudden gusts of wind, but ultimately it landed on the small grey tombstone.

She shivered, only partly because of the chill of a late autumn evening.

Her eyes suddenly became moist, blurring the sight of the tiny cemetery, and her gaze turned inward instead.

To the past.

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Jeannie used to dream of parallel universes.

Ordinary little girls dream about Barbie, or My Little Pony, or being a princess possessing thousands of frilly dresses.

Jeannie loved gazing at the Einstein poster above her bed. Ordinary 10-year olds adored Disney movies, revered teenage pop stars and fawned over photographs of actors.

Jeannie wasn't ordinary. She was a child-genius with a burning ambition to become the greatest scientist ever.

An ambition her father applauded loudly, sending her to the best schools, hiring private tutors and getting her a personal training coach.

Her brain was the only thing he loved about his daughter.

And, no matter the fact that she was only 10 years old, Jeannie was keenly aware of this.

Foolishly, she had made the wrong assumption that if she did her very best to please her father by becoming the most brilliant child ever, he would finally spend more time with her. Finally deem her worthy of his attention.

So, she had poured her heart and soul into science, driving coach and tutors insane with questions, studying any theory she could get her hands on, and receiving invitations of several prestigious universities before she had even turned 16.

But even after obtaining her Master's degree in Theorethical Physics _summa cum laude_ in only 2 years, he still didn't take notice of _her_.

Sure, he talked to her, but always about her work. He read her thesis, and went to great pains to point out every tiny mistake. He looked at her as the reflection of his genius, but never saw her as his daughter.

The day she turned 18, she said goodbye to her life.

She didn't give the arrogant egocentric bastard the satisfaction of seeing her flee, but left quietly as the first ray of morning light touched the earth.

It took her surprisingly little time to finally create her own life.

Quiet, peaceful years followed, in which she settled down, met the man of her life and was blessed with the most beautiful baby daughter any mother could which for.

But bliss is an illusion.

Eventually, her past caught up with her.

One day, a private detective contacted her, informed her that her father had died, and that she had a heritage to claim.

She hadn't wanted to.

Had wanted the past to remain buried safely under the sands of time.

But in the end, she went after all.

Stubbornness ran in the family.

She had been right, as usual, the downside of being a genius. It had been hell digging up memories.

And all that time, Kaleb had been there for her. So had Madison, the little light of her life.

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But right now, her husband and daughter were sitting at home, safe and warm, free of haunting ghosts.

Right now, there was something she had to do alone.

And alone she was, on a tiny cemetery, alone with the dying sunrays and the spectres.

Opening eyes she didn't remember closing, she blinked the tears away and dropped to her knees. Gently, she stretched trembling fingers to the wild vine overgrowing the small tombstone.

And tore.

Wounds she thought long healed were painfully ripped open again as her eyes fel on the eroded letters.

_MADISON GEORGINA MCKAY_

She cried.

Cried for the loss which seemed just as fresh as the day the only person who had ever cared for her had died.

Cried for all the good memories she had forgotten, repressed together with the bad ones.

Her mother had been an angel. She had never truly belonged on earth. She was too good and this world hadn't deserved her.

Neither had her father.

She had never understood what her mother had seen in the harsh, arrogant man. Lord knew he hadn't treated her any different than he treated the rest of the world.

Like unimportant bugs by his feet, to be ruthlessly squashed if they crossed his path.

He had crushed her life, emotionally and physically, but never her spirit. Her heart had remained free, unbound by his control mania.

She had been incredibly creative. Her nimble fingers caressing the piano's keys guided only by her own inspiration had enchanted anyone she had granted the privilege of listening.

Piano con dolcezza, soft gentle tunes, interspersed with sections of allegro con fiero, vivacious pieces sparkling with her joy for life.

Yet once a year, only once, she would play a truly sad melody. Musical notes that had always struck a chord of great sorrow in Jeannie's heart.

Jeannie had never known why her mother played that song. Why that day was obviously so special to her.

But now she did.

Thanks to her inheriting her mother's diary, Jeannie had found out about the one sorrow that her strong spirit hadn't been able to fully overcome.

Four years before Jeannie had been born, her brother had died.

Complications during her mother's first pregnancy had resulted in a desperate but ultimately failed attempt to save the unborn child.

She had cradled the tiny lifeless body in her arms for hours, softly whispering the name of a person that was never to be.

As Jeannie gently removed the rest of the vine covering the lower part of the tomb, her eyes fell on a second name.

_MEREDITH RODNEY MCKAY_

Her heart broke when she read the name. Somehow, finally learning her brother's name made it more real, and even more tragic.

The last light fled the cemetery, left her alone with the cold night.

And the little girl inside of her once again dreamed about parallel universes.

Universes in which Meredith Rodney McKay hadn't died, but had grown up to become her older brother, annoying as hell but at the same time fiercely protective of her.

Universes in which they both had vied for their father's hard to earn attention in fierce competition, but also where her brother ultimately tried to shield her from father's fury.

Universes in which Mer would have obtained the PhD in physics she had always aimed at, in which they had escaped their father together, in which her brother had financially and emotionally supported her when she had dropped out of the scientific community to give her full attention to her husband and daughter.

Maybe, there would be a Meredith Rodney McKay somewhere out there, at this very moment talking to her.

Oh, yes, Mer could very possibly have ended up to be an arrogant genius like his father, but he could also have inherited the creativeness, the resilience, the inner strength of his mother.

He could be the brilliant scientist she had always wanted to be. Jeannie knew she was a genius with a photographic memory that could calculate the most difficult equations in her head. But she lacked the most important prerequisite.

The pure brilliance of creativeness, of being able to think up the astoundingly beautiful from nothing, of creating magic with the gentle touch of fingers.

And she would be proud of him, just like her mother would be.

Maybe, somewhere, in some of those innumerable parallel universes, a boy who had never been born could be saving his universe. Sure, he wouldn't be your stereotypical hero. After all, he would partly carry his father's legacy, but his heart and soul would be his mother's.

A soft breeze caressed her face and she looked up to the sky.

A lonely star winked at her.

She smiled softly as more and more pinpricks of light broke through the darkness.

Suddenly, she didn't feel so alone any more.

She had Kaleb, and Madison, sweet little Madison, only 3 but with a love for pianos to rival her grand-mother's.

She had her fond memories, of slender fingers dancing over the keys, of freshly baked chocolate pie, of gentle laughter in her ear, of hugs and silky soft tickling hair, of bed-time stories featuring space travelling undaunted heroes…

And she had her dreams. One of them featuring a vague idea, lurking in the back of her mind, taking shape slowly but surely, about creating a bridge to a parallel universe.

Maybe, some day, that idea might fully reveal itself.

Maybe, she might see the day her theory would become reality.

And, just maybe, one day she might find the parallel universe she's been dreaming of.


End file.
